Recently, for meeting the requirement for rapid processing, a new system wherein a silver halide color photographic material using silver halide emulsions having a lower silver bromide content and a higher silver chloride content than conventional silver halide emulsions is processed in combination with a developer without using a sulfite and benzyl alcohol contained in a color developer for ordinary color photographic papers has been developed and is now being introduced into the market.
When such rapid processing was employed for processing color photographic papers, it sometimes happened that fading of a specific dye image became severe, in particular, under light irradiation, to thereby unbalance fading of three colors and hence to change the color tone, and also background portions which were non-imaged portions became colored in the case of storing the color photographs in the dark.
It is, as a matter of course, necessary in view of the purpose of storing color photographs to provide color photographs in which the extent of fading (light fading and dark fading) is less with respect to both fading under light irradiation and storage in the dark, and in which coloring of the background portions is maintained at a low degree. Accordingly, the foregoing change caused by employing rapid processing is a major problem.
Various attempts for improving the storage stability of color images have been made but in light fading of, in particular, cyan images, the improvement which so far has been obtained by conventionally proposed methods only is not sufficient. Since in a cyan image, the fading speeds between the case of being irradiated by intense light such as direct sunlight and the case of being irradiated by weak light such as room light for a long period of time differ from those of other dye images, a preferred result is not obtained if only an attempt is made to make cyan images which are resistant to fade, and hence a new means of improving both the fadings by intense light and weak light with a good balance has been desired.
As a means of improving this point, a method of using a compatible dispersion of a cyan coupler and a polymer latex is disclosed in PCT W088/00723 and JP-A-63-44658 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), but the foregoing method is insufficient since the density of cyan images in the case of being irradiated with intense light is greatly lowered. Also, JP-A-3-192347 discloses a method of adding a halogen-substituted hydroquinone to a cyan coloring layer to simultaneously meet the resistance to a fluctuation of photographic properties depending on the exhaustion of a processing solution and the resistance to light fading, but the method is yet insufficient and a further improvement has been desired.
As the result of various investigations by the inventors, it has been found that in a silver halide color photographic material having on a reflecting support three light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers, each having a different light-sensitivity (i.e., a sensitivity to a different wavelength region), one containing a yellow dye-forming coupler, one containing a magenta dye-forming coupler, and one containing a cyan dye-forming coupler, a color photographic material capable of rapid processing and showing improved cyan fading can be obtained by using a specific cyan coupler, disposing the silver halide emulsion layer containing the cyan coupler at the position farthest from the support with respect to the three silver halide emulsions, forming a hydrophilic light-insensitive layer which contains a specific hydroquinone compound and which does not substantially contain an ultraviolet absorbent under (the support side) the cyan coupler-containing emulsion layer adjacent thereto, and using a silver halide having a silver chloride content of at least 90%.
However, as the result of further making the investigations, it has been clarified that by such a construction described above, the gradation of the high-density portions is softened and so-called loose images are liable to form. Thus, for obtaining steady and clear images, a means for preventing the occurrence of softening of high density portions is required.